'PEPPER'S GHOST IS TEARING ITS HAIR': OTTAWA THEATRE IN THE 1870s

Mary M. Brown

During the 1870s Ottawa audiences enjoyed a varied program of professional touring companies. Opera, drama, minstrel and one-man shows, as well as circuses visited the city. An analysis of the performance calendar of shows at Her Majesty's Theatre, the Rink Music Hall, Gowan's Opera House, and later the Opera House reveals Ottawa's prominent position on the south-eastern Ontario touring circuit during the nineteenth century.

Pendant les années mille huit soixante dix le public d'Ottawa avait jouit de spectacles de troupes professionelles en tournée. L'Opéra, le drame, des troupes de ménestrel, les spectacles donné par un seul homme et le cirque visitèrent la ville. Une analyse des répresentations du Her Majesty's Theatre, au Rink Music Hall et Gowan's Opera House, révèle l'importante position d'Ottawa dans les circuits de tornée dans le sud-est d'Ontario au cours du dix-neuvième siècle.

While Lady Dufferin supervised the production of children's plays and operettas at Rideau Hall during the 1870s, other spectacles were flourishing in Ottawa's public theatres and on street corners. Dr Sovereign, the patent medicine man who pitched his tent on Nicholas Street, lured passers-by with a negro quartet and offers of painless tooth extraction, free. He worried more about competition from Skiff and Gaylord's Minstrels than from vice-regal theatricals. Barnum's came in the early 1860s as did Rice's (five closed wagons with wild animals and the first elephant man seen in Ottawa) and by 1873, L.B. Lent thought it worthwhile to bring his Leviathon Universal Living Exposition with '500 men and horses, 500 captive animals, 5,000 museum marvels and sixty carloads of curiosities'.¹ In the theatres, stock companies from Toronto, Hamilton, London, Montreal and St John's took up temporary residence and imported stars like T.C. King, E.A. Sothern and O.D. Byron. The 'circuit riders' filled in between longer runs as did musicians on tour. It was a lively decade in the young capitol.

There were three public theatres: Her Majesty's, the Rink Music Hall and Gowan's Opera House. The theatre at Rideau Hall, though active, was private. Her Majesty's Theatre, built in 1854 on Wellington just west of Bank, was a 1,000 seat house. In May 1870 'the old and useless chandelier' was replaced by new gas lights (Ottawa Times, 4 May 1870). Three months later the new lessee and manager, William J. Marshall, enlarged the orchestra pit and re-upholstered the seats. He also announced the engagement of W.J. Forster, 'scenic artist from the Theatre Royal, Dublin', to paint elaborate new sets for Lost in London (in eight days) and Across the Continent (Ottawa Times, 12 August 1970). Nevertheless, by 6 October, Marshall had left Ottawa where, one gathers, his credit had expired. Her Majesty's was dark until the following May when Ward and Wilton came for one or two nights. Then - nothing. On 29 August 1871, the Times Printing and Publishing Co moved into the building.

The first theatrical event of the decade took place at Her Majesty's on 3 March, when the Amateur Theatrical Club of the 60th performed The Midnight Watch 'with taste and spirit' and To Paris and Back for Five Pounds, a farce which 'went off like a champagne cork'. From April to May and from August to October, Marshall's London Comedy and Burlesque Co. occupied the house, which was managed by a Mr Miles until August when Marshall took over. This company was English and had been in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1868 with at least two of the same actors - Harry Lindley and his wife Florence Webster - though this was their first appearance in Ottawa (Ottawa Citizen, 13 April 1870). They opened 14 April with a company of '20 first class artists' in The Witches of New York, starring Albert Aiken who was also the author. The play was described by The Ottawa Citizen as a sensational drama with a large cast (15 April 1870).² Mr Aiken was warmly received in the role of Royal Keene and it was said he 'displayed a great deal of natural talent'. He was thus encouraged to stay on to play Tom Burroughs in Formosa, or the Road to Ruin, Boucicault's new (1869) melodrama. Florence Webster played the ruined Formosa, to frequent and loud applause. Then Marshall settled down to a standard English repertoire. The comedian Harry Lindley scored in The Lancashire Lass, as Dame Hatley in a localized, politicized burlesque of Black Eyed Susan, in Miriam's Crime, as Biles, a part he had played 'upwards of 300 nights', in London, The Temptation, Oliver Twist, The Streets of New York and Robinson Crusoe, as well as in his own afterpiece, Seeing Lindley (Ottawa Citizen, 19 April 1870). He took a well-deserved benefit on 17 May and either went on Marshall's two month summer tour or left the company. At any rate, neither he nor his wife appears in Marshall's cast lists again. In 1873, after stints with George Holman, Spackman and Mrs Charlotte Morrison, he returned to Ottawa with his own company and leased the Rink Music Hall.

During Marshall's summer tour, he left one of his leading ladies, Nellie Nelson ('a captivating and vivacious' Susan, a steely nerved Mazeppa) at Her Majesty's (Ottawa Citizen, 25 April 1870) and brought in a male comic, Johnnie Ward, to play opposite her for a summer season of eminently forgettable plays, of which one example will suffice. On 8 August, Nature and Philosophy; or, the Youth that Never Saw a Woman was followed by the standard farce, Seeing ---, in this case Ward.

Lost in London, with W.J. Forster's sets, including 'the Grand Coal Mine Scene', 'showing Horses & Men at Work', opened 20 August, two days late because of the forest fires just outside Ottawa. (Victims of those fires benefited from the performance on 24 August.) Marshall had staked a good deal on this production: renovations to the theatre, a scene painter imported from Dublin and three actors from New York U. Z. Little, Lizzie Campbell and John Swinburn). The press was appreciative: 'A large audience, comprising some of our most respected citizens, filled the house while the plays were well-chosen and performed in a manner superior to anything that has ever been witnessed in the theatre ... ' Dora, 'after Tennyson', was prologue to the main event and a Miss Peterson got rave reviews for her acting in this pastoral drama. The critic noted that Dora is a 'strictly moral play, and can be witnessed alike by women, children and men with pleasure and benefit' (Ottawa Times, 25 August 1870). In September, the bucolic Dora faced a different challenge as Parthenia in Ingomar.

Next, Marshall brought in Oliver Doud Byron to direct and star in James McClosky's Across the Continent (29 August). The Ottawa Times noted on: 1 September, 'theatrically, Ottawa is, indeed, reviving'. Mr Forster, who had ten days in which to create a whole new lot of set pieces, must have wondered if revival was worth the effort. The show had everything: a spectacular railroad scene, a last minute rescue achieved with the new telegraph machine, and moral lessons on the evils of wealth, smallness of soul, alcohol, domestic misery and dishonesty. This 'agreeable, instructive and entertaining' piece drew good houses and Mr Byron's acting was called 'wonderfully easy and always natural'. The fact that McClosky was Canadian born seemed not to be of any significance in 1870; he had, after all, left Montreal for New York in 1841. Across the Continent, or Scenes from New York Life and the Pacific Railroad played Toronto, Montreal and Quebec in the spring of 1870; Ottawa must have been the last Canadian stop before Byron's American debut in Albany on 12 September. Richard Moody says that Byron went to Albany with fifty cents in his pocket and left with six hundred dollars, which, if true, says something about the state of Marshall's finances.³

Byron stayed on to play King Philip, the Indian chief and hero of Metamora. This was, of course, the play which made a fortune for Edwin Forrest, though not for its author, John Augustus Stowe. It was old hat by 1870 and attracted only a 'fair' audience despite Byron's acknowledged ability as a tragic actor. After Byron went on to Albany, Marshall fell back on other old favourites such as Ingomar, The Poor of New York, Robinson Crusoe (a 'localized' pantomime), Kathleen Mavourneen and The Octoroon. The Times reported, on 29 September, that the troupe was 'every day becoming more popular' so that the manager 'wears away the injurious reputation cast upon the theatre in times gone by' (Ottawa Times, 29 September 1870), but a week later, Marshall announced his departure for an engagement at the Theatre Royal in Montreal and nothing more was heard of him in Ottawa.

When Her Majesty's closed, the only other theatre was a converted skating rink variously called The Music Hall or The Rink Music Hall. From 1870 to 1873, a calendar of events there reveals a succession of minstrels, acrobats and illusionists as well as the occasional comic opera and classical concert. The only troupe to spend any length of time at The Rink during this period was Herndon and Leslie's Opera House Company which occupied the theatre from 24 February-5 March 1870. Ida Leslie, Mr Herndon and the company manager, A.R. Phelps, came from California via Montreal. Ingomar, Camille, Adriadne, The Hunchback, The Colleen Bawn, East Lynne and The Octoroon were all chosen as vehicles for Ida Leslie. After two weeks of moderate success in Ottawa, they moved on to Prescott to begin a tour 'westward'.

Early in 1873, Harry Lindley, who had leased the Theatre Royal in Montreal in 1872, returned to Ottawa with his own company and undertook the management of the Rink Music Hall. After his opening on 4 February, the Times critic condemned the theatre: 'It is in every way unsuitable ... dark, dingy, dirty' with uncomfortable seats, 'ridiculous heating arrangements, bad accoustics. Added to these disadvantages ... is the fact that underneath it flows a creek which receives the drainage of the section it passes through, and the miasmatic exhalations from which creep up through the floor ... ' (Ottawa Times, 4 February 1873) Six months later, Lindley announced that the Hall was 'Repainted, Refurbished, Remodelled, Reconstructed' and that new scenery had been painted by George Morn's (Ottawa Times, 30 August 1873). In November, the same critic pronounced it 'warm and comfortable' and 'crowded by the elite of our city', foremost among whom was the Earl of Dufferin (Ottawa Times, 25 November 1873).

Lindley managed the Rink until December 1874. Occasionally, he would play a week in Montreal, where he became manager of the Theatre Royal again in 1874-5. It was in that theatre that he first presented the English actor T.C. King to Canadian audiences. When he brought King to Ottawa in March and April 1874, the ads read 'Mr. T. C. King, English Tragedian, supported by Lindley's Full Montreal Theatre Royal Company' (Ottawa Times, 28 March 1874). In Ottawa, King performed Othello, Hamlet, Richelieu and Julian St. Pierre in Knowles' The Wife.

His Ottawa debut was Othello (31 March) and the local press found him an able successor to Kemble, Keene and Brooke. The supporting company were 'good, with the exception of Lindley who "seemed a fish out of water"' (Ottawa Times, 1 April 1874). As Hamlet, (2 April) King was applauded by The Ottawa Times. 'He neither tears a passion to tatters, nor is provokingly tame, but enunciates clearly, and fully understands the scene and the madness ... .' (3 April 1874) Florence Webster, challenged by the presence of a star, never appeared to better advantage than in the role of Gertrude. King's Richelieu was praised for the emotional and histrionic range of the characterization. Knowles' The Wife (3 April), however, was scarcely mentioned in the next day's paper. Instead, 'the treat of the evening so far as mirth and amusement were concerned was Professor Lindley's Talking Machine, which was composed of boards and nails, and it gave imitations of the human voice, laughter, the French, Italian, German and Greek languages.' Some 'capital local hits were made' to the obvious delight of the audience.⁴ None of the other leads imported by Lindley had reputations to equal King's but they allowed the manager to spice his seasons and gave his own small company a respite or valued contact with other professionals.

Mr and Mrs N.C. Forrester and their troupe drew excellent houses in 1873 for among other favourites, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ten Nights in a Bar-room, Under the Gaslight, London Assurance, Satan in Paris, Rosedale, Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl, Leah the Forsaken and The Honeymoon (this followed by a farce called Great Trouble in Ottawa; or, the Fellow That Looks Like Me). Denman Thompson came to Lindley for four shows in September of that year. He was called ,an actor of sterling merit' in Colleen Bawn (Ottawa Times, 17 September 1873) and 'particularly happy' as Barney O'Toole in Peep O'Day (Ottawa Times, 18 September 1873). John Jack and Annie Firmin 'from New York' starred in a satisfying production of New Magdalen in Mr Jack's own version (Ottawa Times, 23 September 1873) and stayed on with Lindley's company for Brougham's John Garth and The Hidden Hand between 23 and 26 September. Lindley's production of Buffalo Bill also featured the first appearance of Weldon the Illusionist and Joe H. Banks (Ottawa Times, 29 September 1873), a song and dance man who returned on other occasions.

Lindley's most exotic star in 1873 was undoubtedly Kate Fisher who arrived with her horse Wonder ('formerly the property of P.T., Barnum') to play Mazeppa'with triumphant success'.⁵ The Times critic was dazzled: 'Her pantomime is exquisitely graceful, her poses statuesque, her dresses more than magnificent and her acting artistic.' (6 October 1873) More than 2,000 people saw this performance on 6 October. The French Spy, Miss Fisher's benefit, was 'admirably placed upon the stage. The battle scene at the end of the act was a superb climax, bomb shells bursting, guns firing, walls falling, and fire burning in unlimited profusion.' (Ottawa Times, 11 October 1873) The star's elaborate costumes were again noted, as were the scenic designs of Mr Morris. The box office was obviously excellent and Kate Fisher performed for another five nights in Cigarette, or the Little Leopard of France (adapted from Ouida's novel Under Two Flags), her own 'specialty' Three Fast Men, a dramatic version of Fennimore Cooper's Wept of the Wishton Wish, The Fellow That Looks Like Me, Captain Jack and the Medocs, Claude Duval on Horseback, Sarah's Young Man, and J.B. Sparrow's Jack Harkaway in which she played Zamin.

For pure spectacle, Kate Fisher was a hard act to follow, but a year later Lindley did his best. Mlle Marietta Ravel, 'one of the most brilliant stars in the dramatic firmament' delighted full houses with The French Spy. The Ottawa Times (8 September 1874) said,

in her hands it is not the conventional Spy with which we are so familiar, but a fresh, sparkling, artistic and admirable performance. Her pantomime simply speaks - her dancing is the perfection of poetry in motion - and her combats simply the most marvellous ever before exhibited by a woman. Her fight with Mr. Ed Lay was the most untiring, skillful and enduring that could possibly be achieved. In fact it is the highest perfection of swordsman skill.

The notice of the second performance (8 September) revealed that 'she has also a beautiful figure' and is 'par excellence the Star of the Pantomimic Art'. Tellingly, the reviewer added, 'we know our English citizens will not be behindhand in appreciating a true genius, let her race be what it will'. (Ottawa Times, 9 September 1874) Those who considered The French Spy too racy probably thronged to see Mlle Ravel in The Wizard Skiff, a drama 'of uncertain historical age' which abounded in 'red fire transparencies, combats and melodramatic situations' (Ottawa Times, 11 September 1874) or in Jartine, the Pride of the 14th, a vehicle for introducing the varied specialities of Mlle Ravel, including a Pas d'Espagnol and a daring tight-rope act (Ottawa Times, 12 September 1874).

In between these star turns, Lindley's company depended upon a standard British repertoire with the addition of American favourites. Like E.A. McDowell, he was quick to use local material and local talent. His Ottawa Firemen (10 April 1873) was probably an adaptation of The Firemen of New York. Retribution, advertised as a Canadian première of La Loi du Talon was, presumably, adapted by Lindley in the interests of biculturalism. It did not meet with approval: 'Retribution is a sensational yellow backed French novel, boiled down.' (Ottawa Times, 28 February 1873) Lindley was more successful with two farces used as afterpieces: Bluebeard (4 March 1873) was written by Grant Seymour, an Ottawa resident, and Prince John John or Specific Scandal (22 September 1873) starred Lindley as MacNull of the Royal Commission. Both were merry mischief.

The Governor General and his lady patronized the Rink from time to time. Meanwhile, Lady Dufferin was busy preparing her stage at Rideau Hall. On Tuesday, 11 March 1873, she wrote in her diary, 'Pepper's Ghost is also tearing its hair at the number of my gaieties in Ottawa, and wrote an entreating appeal to D. to come himself on Friday ... .' ⁶ The 'gaieties' revolved around the opening of Parliament 6 March, with all the attendant dinner parties and receptions and the opening night of To Oblige Benson at Rideau Hall. Lady Dufferin had invited 300 people to see her play on Friday, but she obligingly moved her show to Thursday and sent a'young party, under Lady Harriet's chaperonage, to see Pepper's Ghost'. The chaperone slept through the whole performance, not surprisingly since the refurbishing of the ball-room into a theatre, rehearsals for the play, a dinner party for the Cabinet, a reception for both Houses of Parliament and sundry other activities had all been crammed into the previous two weeks.

To Oblige Benson went off splendidly. Guests arrived at nine and were entertained by the band of the Governor General's Guards. 'People were particularly delighted with Fred's performance - he did the part of Trotter Southdown; and Mrs. Southdown was excellent, too. Just as they finished, Mario arrived.' (According to the Ottawa Times, 4 March 1873, Giuseppe Mario, an Italian tenor, had given a concert with Carlotta Patti, soprano, and M Sauret, violinist, at the Rink Music Hall earlier that evening). The Governor General asked him, to sing, which he did - twice. Then the 300 guests adjourned for supper. It must have been a long evening.

Lady Dufferin was patron, director, set painter, make-up lady and actress between November and March during her residence here and recorded many of these activities in My Canadian Journal 1872-1878. She commissioned children's plays by F.A. Dixon with music by F.W. Mills. Visiting artists were invited to Rideau Hall: Rosa d'Erina, for example, sang ballads composed by the Earl's mother during an evening of skating and dancing in 1874. Lady Dufferin starred in Gilbert's Sweethearts and read the epilogue to the evening which Lord Dufferin had written for her (1878).

One well-documented event at Rideau Hall was the first production of The Maire of St. Brieux in 1875. Her Journal entry reads:

Wednesday, March 31st. - My baby boy is now five weeks old, so I was able to be present at the second presentation of the 'Maire of St. Brieux,' of which the first performance had been extremely successful. It is an operetta, written by Mr. Dixon, whom you know well by name, and composed by Mr. Mills, the organist in Ottawa. The music is very pretty and the whole play excellent. It is very interesting to bring out a new thing on one's own stage, and even the author and composer must have been satisfied with the actors and singers who played in it. The prima donna, Mrs. Anglin, both sang and looked charmingly, and the Maire himself, Mr. Kimber, was quite perfect.
    I asked the actors to keep on their costumes during the evening, and they made the party look very gay and pretty, the girls' coloured petticoats and high, white caps, and the men's bright-coloured clothes, being very effective.⁷

A year later, the first public performance of this comic opera was given on 25 March, at the Opera House (Gowan's) as a benefit for the composer, Mr Mills. The Governor General's party occupied the viceregal and upper boxes to see this new amateur production, in which only three of the leads were the same (E. Kimber as the Maire, J.H. Plummer as the hero, Charles Duval, and E. Gingras as the Maire's friend, M Bouillet).

One might assume, quite wrongly, that Mr Mills, the Ottawa organist and F.A. Dixon, his librettist, had set their opera in Quebec. In fact, St Brieux is in Brittany and the action, circa 1800, concerns the attempt of a young Englishman, Charles Duval, to place le Comte de Provence (a refugee in England) on the throne of France. He is aided by la Comtesse de Beaudry, a Royalist who is living incognito in St Brieux and who turns out to be Duval's cousin and youthful love. The Maire is the unwitting go-between in this international intrigue. Much attention was paid in the reviews to the music and none at all to the fate of the aspiring monarch. In St Brieux, l'amour was more important than thrones, and while Charles Duval and la Comtesse rediscover each other, Pierre, the blacksmith's apprentice, and his Marie follow the usual course of true love. They were encouraged in their endeavours by an 'admirable' orchestra and a chorus of thirty-six peasants.⁸

The Opera House in which this performance was seen belonged to a Mr Gowan, himself a musician. At the beginning of the 1870s, he had a Hall on Sparks Street which was used for temperance meetings, lectures, military and other amateur concerts, readings and balls. Following renovations in the summer and fall of 1873, the name was changed to Gowan's Opera House. In 1875, this theatre was superceded by Gowan's New Opera House which was opened in February (Ottawa Times, 26 January 1875); the old building is then referred to as St James Hall, 'late Gowman's, Sparks St.'. Although Gowan lost control of the theatre in October 1877, it continued in operation and, for the last half of this decade, was the only functioning theatre in Ottawa.

The Holman Opera Co presided over the Gala Opening of the New Opera House in 1875 opening with Bohemian Girl. La Somnabula on 2 February was followed by Cinderella, Fra Diavolo, La Grande Duchesse and The Love Spell, which they cut short to catch the train for Montreal. This caper did not amuse the critic, who had to prove that he could spot a truncated show. Herndon's, the 'Opera Troupe' which followed, ran through fifteen standard plays in twelve days, beginning with Rosedale and including East Lynne, Rip Van Winkle, Lady Audley's Secret, Bertha, The Sewing Machine Girl and Arrah na Pogue. They returned in May with T.C. King who starred in Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Ingomar, Richelieu and The Corscian Brothers, seven leads in one week if one counts the dual role in the Dumas play. This handsome, old fashioned English tragedian is said to have earned $400 a night in Canada in 1875 and to have spent it all on good hotel suites, good company and food.

E.A. McDowell brought The Shaughraun (5-8 May) after his performance of the Boucicault play in Toronto. For the rest of the seventies, he came back to Ottawa several times every year except one (1878). Since an account of his career in Canada appeared in the first issue of this journal, his Ottawa performances are merely listed here for reference.⁹ The precarious life he led is glimpsed through occasional news items - 'McDowell intends to disband at the end of the present tour' (8 April 1877) and in ads 'Grand Farewell Performance' (15 May 1877) or 'positively the last appearance of Mr. and Mrs. McDowell prior to their departure for Boston' (Free Press, 18 July 1877). Their final appearance during this period was, in fact, on 25 October 1879, proof of the man's resilience.

Charlotte Morrison arrived with her Grand Opera House Company from Toronto in June and was seen again in November and December in 1875. In June she featured John L. Toole in the 'great moral drama' Dearer Than Life; in November she played the wife to George Rowe's Micawber in Little Emily and took the lead in Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady. For an amateur production of The Rivals in December, she was Lydia Languish. Mr Kimber (the Maire of St Brieux) played Bob Acres.

The following year, Charlotte Morrison introduced Ottawa to a stage struck baronet, Sir Randall Howland Roberts, in a comedietta of his devising, called Under a Veil. Opposite Mrs Marlowe, Mrs Morrison's sister, he also essayed King O'Neil, or the Irish Brigade and Naval Engagements. Mrs Morrison was back again in 1878 with three plays, one of which was Pink Dominoes, the show that shocked Winnipeg in 1880. Ottawa pronounced it a great success.

Meanwhile, Harry Lindley had been managing the Theatre Royal for Mrs Buckland in Montreal and had brought in Charles Fechter in June 1875. The whole engagement was a disaster: Fechter demanded a guarantee of $500 per night and that four actors be hired to support him. A production of Hamlet (famous for his colloquial, understated reading) had to be postponed because he was too drunk to act. With this fragile baggage, Lindley descended on Ottawa in June and baby-sat the star through four performances. Fechter's Ruy Blas, a part he could recite in his sleep, was frequently applauded. In it, he showed 'extraordinary histrionic ability'; the support of Lizzie Price, F.C. Bangs, H. Langdon and Vining Bowers - all imported - caused the reviewer to remark, 'The whole company in fact is a strong one, and doubts are expressed as to whether it will pay them to remain long with us.' (Ottawa Times, 7 July 1875) Fechter made it through two more plays in three nights, apparently sober.

There were good short runs between the visits of McDowell, Morrison and Lindley in 1875. Tony Pastor, who made vaudeville respectable, brought 'the most powerful variety company ever in Ottawa' (26-27 July). There were gymnasts, 'musical mokes', infant velocipedists called Venus and Adonis, American eccentrics and much, much more. Callendar's Original Georgia Minstrels, a famous company which first appeared in Ohio in 1872, arrived for two nights (19-20 October) with Jubilee Songs, Plantation Scenes and Comic Acts. They protested, in a brilliant puff in the press, 'This is the first appearance of the Company in Ottawa. A company fraudently using our title and our artists' names appeared here last summer.' (Ottawa Times, 16 October 1875) Blind Tom played, as always, to good houses and, on occasion, to the Governor General.

1876 saw the Holmans back in January, February and November. McDowell came in March, May, June, August and December. Ada Gray, an actress of more aspiration than reputation, performed in Camille, Article 47, Lady Audley's Secret, East Lynne and Lucretia Borgia, among others, in March. She was 'supported by the Canadian actor W.H. Brent' (Ottawa Times, 10 March 1876), who was allowed to see his own composition Shaullanah given as an afterpiece (Ottawa Times, 17 March 1876). When they returned in December, the company name had been changed to Ada Grey and Brent.

The stellar attraction of 1876, however, was E.A. Sothern in Our American Cousin. ¹⁰ Although the local critic regretted that Sothern had grown 'a little careless' in his portrayal, he had to admit that 'one of the largest and most fashionable audiences that has ever assembled in the Opera House' was convulsed with laughter (Ottawa Times, 23 May 1876). The next night, it was David Garrick and the reviewer sniffed, 'However .. the Sothern-Garrick is too overdone to be acceptable to those who know how to judge and criticise the representation' (Ottawa Times, 25 May 1876). He added that the performance had been cut short so that the company could catch the night train. Sothern, who had been trouping in Canada for more than twenty years, no doubt chuckled as he planned his revenge.

McDowell, rather than Holman, opened the season in January 1877, with Nell Warner as his star. Unlike Sothern, McDowell arranged to have the train delayed for the show on his last night. He would return in April, May (starring W.H. Lytelle) and July ('first appearance of W.F. Owen' and Ida Savony). There are signs that the Company was in trouble as various members turn up elsewhere. By October, Felix Morris (ex-McDowell) is advertised as featuring Gertrude Kellogg and Neil Warner in Saratoga, Jo (Bleak House), The Two Roses, Meg Merilles, Katherine and Petruchio and Ticket-of-Leave Man. This troupe is referred to as Felix Morris' Academy of Music Co. of Montreal.

Sothern returned 18 and 19 May with a new play by H.J. Byron, perhaps chosen with the local critic in mind. It was Hornet's Nest 'in 3 Buzzes and a Stinger'. The Free Press critic lashed out, 'We think it our duty to be very candid, and consequently to state that the play itself is below mediocre - in fact, that it is almost entirely devoid of merit of any kind.' The jokes were 'commonplace and insipid'. 'There is a considerable sprinkling of profanity through it, too, which was laughed at last night very heartily, but which might meet with a very cold reception on another occasion from the very same audience.' There followed a detailed plot synopsis! ¹¹ Sam, Lord Dundreary's Brother fared better. 'The cool audacity of "Sam" and the nonchalant manner in which he took possession of a friend's house for a few days, and got a temporary wife in order to befool his uncle into granting him a liberal supply of money, were truly amusing, and the audience was kept in constant roars of laughter.' (Ottawa Times, 19 May 1877) Sothern went on to Montreal to enliven the season there.

Bookings at the Opera House were less frequent and, on the whole, less interesting in 1878 and 1879. Virtually every noteworthy show in 1878 was jobbed out of Montreal. From the Academy of Music (William Nannary, manager) came May Howard, Charlotte Morrison, Alice Dunning Lingard 'the first artificial blonde in America', Felix Morris and his New York Company (said to be 'going to England shortly') and Charlotte Thompson. From the Theatre Royal came Kate Fisher and her horse to play Mazeppa and Lady Godiva, the Holmans, The Texas Jack Combination, May Fiske's Blondes ('We're naughty but we're nice'), and a Parisian company which is worth noting because it was well received in anglophone Ottawa.

Hailed as 'the greatest theatrical event in 10 years' by The Free Press in 1878, the company was promoted in French June 14) and reviewed in English (18 and 19 June). This 'first class' company produced Mlle de la Seigliere by Emile Augiere, Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre by Octave Feuillet and D'Ennery's La Grace de Dieu. Mlle M. Leblanc and Mons M. Bouteloup starred in the first play and the whole cast was well reviewed. The Feuillet play was 'a rare treat'; Mons M. Veniat in the lead was excellent and 'of the ladies, too much cannot be said, their acting being of the highest order.' (Ottawa Times, 18 and 19 June 1878) The company went on to New York.

After a summer lull, there was a Grand Re-Opening of the Opera House on 23 September but only sixteen events were advertised during the remainder of 1878. When the Monarch of All Wizards (alias Professor J. M. MacAllister) performed his Pandora Box trick just before Christmas, he probably sealed the fate of the theatre.

Even McDowell's return in 1879 was rather sad. His Great Burlesque and Specialty Co arrived 2 January with an almost totally different company.¹² Mr Hight, Mr Selwyn, Mr Arnold and the McDowells were all that remained of the old troupe. The audience laughed with delight at Fanny Reeves as Beauty and E.A. as the Beast. Between the acts, Frank Gibbons appeared on a trapeze made of a rifle and played a cornet solo while balancing on one foot.

Charlotte Thompson repeated Jane Eyre and played Camille and The Hunchback 15-17 January. On the 20th, Ottawa first saw H.M.S. Pinafore, hustled up from Boston by the Martinez Company which continued on to the new Opera House in Kingston. Pinafore-mania hit Ottawa in 1879 no less than six times. On 6 February Mrs Scott-Siddons, patronized by the Marquis of Lorne and Princess Louise, was 'very charming' in a diversified program, the highlight of which was 'the vivid, soul-stirring portrayal of The Maniac'! (Ottawa Free Press, 7 February 1879) Warde and Barrymore presented Diplomacy (without Barrymore). Daniel Bandmann's English Company came from Montreal for a week of tragedy in November; the American 'star', Gus Williams, provided comic relief a few days later.

Brief engagements of forgotten performers make amusing reading until one realizes how difficult it was to run a theatre or a company - not to mention both -in the late seventies. In 1878 both the Academy of Music and the Theatre Royal closed in Montreal. McDowell was between companies. Neil Warner was reduced to teaching elocution in Montreal. Kate Fisher's new horse, Black Bess, was seized for debt in Quebec city. Harry Lindley was burned out of the Hamilton Opera House where he had just opened with a new company; he lost his books, scenery and costumes. 1878 was such a slow year in Toronto that Rose-Beldord's Canadian Monthly dropped its regular 'Music and Drama' column. When it was resumed in 1879, the critic congratulated Augustus Pitou for abandoning stock in favour of combination companies.

The end of one decade and the beginning of another is, in one sense, an artificial way to divide history. Nevertheless, the 1870s in Ottawa and in other eastern Canadian cities were distinctly different from the ten years which followed. By the 1880s, many more companies contracted, during each summer, for the season by booking dates with individual managers or on one or more circuits. Consequently, they tended to produce fewer shows. The new realism which William Dean Howells and others advocated influenced writers, designers and those who financed productions as well as actors. The risks were not less but different: the travelling was arduous, unfamiliar or ill-equipped theatres and some irresponsible managers took their toll, and the tedium of constant repetition replaced the frenzy of getting up a new show in a few days.

The rewards for actors lay in well-rehearsed productions, longer seasons, new audiences in new theatres. The year McDowell toured H.M.S. Parliament and Sarah Bernhardt discovered Canada was 1880. Our theatres would never be the same again.

'PEPPER'S GHOST IS TEARING ITS HAIR': OTTAWA THEATRE IN THE 1870s

Mary M. Brown

1 There were three newspapers in Ottawa during the 1870s: The Ottawa Free Press, The Ottawa Citizen and The Ottawa Times. All three were read for ads and reviews by Sabina Nölke and Janice Simpson, to whom I express my thanks. Lent gave three shows on 26 May (Ottawa Citizen, 20 September 1924). References to Dr Sovereign, Barnum and Lent are to be found in the Ottawa Scrapbook, Part I (Casier 361), National Public Archives, Ottawa.
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2 Members of Marshall's company mentioned in newspaper reviews during this period numbered twelve: Florence Webster, Nellie Nelson, Nellie Wallace, Louise Peterson, Miss Breyer, Harry Lindley, H.R. Setson, E.T. Clinton and Messrs Bensel(l), Melrose, Howard and Knight. Mr Marshall was not himself an actor.
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3 RICHARD MOODY, Dramas from the American Theatre 1762-1909 Cleveland: World Publishing, 1966, p 503
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4 One week earlier, a Professor and Mrs Fabre had equal success with their talking machine at Gowan's.
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5 In 1870, Marshall's company starred Nellie Nelson in Mazeppa.
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6 MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA, My Canadian Journal; 1872-78; Extracts from my letters home written while Lord Duffierin was Governor-General London: John Murray, 1891, p 69
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7 My Canadian Journal p 213. See also Canadian Monthly Vol 7, April 1875, pp 374-5.
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8 Ottawa Times, 27 March 1876
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9 1875:

The Shaughraun Company in Divorce (28, 29 July), The Two Orphans (30 July), The Colleen Bawn (31 July), Led Astray (2 August), School (3 August), Caste (4 August), Ours (5 August), The Shaughraun (7 August) New Shaughraun Company in Rosedale (20, 21 September), Pygmalion and Galatea (22, 23 September), The Shaughraun (24 September), School (25 September), Home (27 September), Rosedale (29 September), Mary Warner (Ottawa première) (30 September, 1, 2 October), The Rose of Castille (4 October), Arrah na Pogue (5, 6 October), The New Magdalen (7 October), The Shaughraun (8 October), Mary Warner (9 October), The New Magdalen (11 October), London Assurance (12 October), East Lynne (13 October), Big Bonanza! (14 October), The Honeymoon and Pocahontas (15 October)

1876:

New Shaughraun Co from the Academy of Music, Montreal, in Our Boys (28, 29 March), The Field of the Cloth of Gold (30 March), Alixe (31 March), The Geneva Cross (11 May), Rose Michel (12 May), Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady (26 June), Led Astray (28 August), The Two Orphans (29 August), The Shaughraun (30 August), Viroce (31 August), Streets of New York (1 September), Rosedale (2 September), Pique (Ottawa première, 1 December), Pique (mat) Under the Gaslight (eve, 2 December)

1877:

Shaughraun Company in Eileen Oge (9 January), Pique (10 January), Macbeth (11 January), Eileen Oge (12 January), Uncle Tom's Cabin (mat) Mary Warner (eve) (13 January), The Shaughraun (3 April), Married in Haste and The Spectre Bridegroom (4 April), After Dark (5 April), False Shame, or New Year's Eve (6 April), The Shaughraun (mat) Our Boys (eve, 7 April), Our Boarding House (14 May), Around the World in 80 Days ('Grand Farewell Performance', 15 May), Our Boarding House ('Farewell appearance', 23 July), The Shaughraun (24 July), As You Like It (25 July), Romeo and Juliet (26 July), Rosedale (27 July), Our Boys (mat) Ours! (eve, 28 July)

1879:

E. A. McDowell's Great Burlesque and Specialty Co in Beauty and the Beast (2 January), The Field of the Cloth of Gold (3 January), Beauty and the Beast (mat) The Shaughraun (eve, 4 January). The Shaughraun Company in The Two Orphans (5 March), Caste (6 March), Ours (7 March), The Two Orphans (mat) The Colleen Bawn (eve), The Old Curiosity Shop (10 March), Franchon (12, 13 March), The Little Detective (14 March), Arrah na Pogue (17 March), Little Em'1y (18 March), The Shaughraun (22 March), Engaged (25 April), Emily (26 April).

E.A. McDowell's Vaudeville Company in Old Love Letters (22 September), Snowball (24, 25 September), Meg's Diversion (26 September), Miriam's Crime (27 September), Snowball and Mr. and Mrs. Peter White (29 September), The Duke's Motto (23, 24, 25 October).
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10 Sothern's first performance of this play was in Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, 1858.
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11 Ottawa Free Press 19 May 1877
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12 Cast lists give the following names: John Burnett, C.H. Marland, Master Hogan, Theresa Newcomb, Mrs Harry Allan, Ina Clayton, Julia Davis, Sallie Clinetop, as well as the former company members listed in the text.
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